DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

lizzy23 wrote: »

This is our method too,, at the end of the day without the DMP we would never have paid it off, yes with it, it may take 7 years but at least we have a relatively normal life, don't get me wrong we do watch the pennies, but we have a relatively normal life

I think that the limits that they get presumably from the Government are quite low, although it's good when you can see some room for movement by adding bits here and there to 'hairdressing' 'dry cleaning' and 'entertainment'... I was shocked when I felt the need to own up about my 4500 new car which my parent's kindly bought on Hire Purchase as my last one blew up, literally.. but they allowed for the 109 a month, it's all down to your circumstances having said that I seem to have dropped a clanger this month and have £4.70 until the 22nd... happy days :rotfl:

CA x

Mossop01 wrote: »

Hi all, managed to get the kids to bed early tonite, so I've sat and sorted out spreadsheets for incomings and outgoings and another for debts and the DMP! After a bit of a negative day feeling sorry for myself, I now think i can go to sleep feeling I've done something constructive (albeit a small thing) towards this sorry mess!
Tomorrows another day.....

Well done on managing to get the spreadsheets done. There are a fair few spreadsheet addicts on this thread!

Rollercoaster emotions are par for the course especially in the early days of DMPs.

How do you do the spreadsheets? I tend to find columns/tables of numbers a little bewildering, but it sounds like a really helpful thing to do if you can get it set up and keep on top of it?

I've applied for an EDF Energy Trust grant to help with the ridiculous Gas/Electric arrears that I didn't even know existed until last month. Hoping they can help out...I won't count my chickens, and I'm still working as though I'd never heard of the grants, but if they could assist...well, it'd be a huge help. I'd be able to up my StepChange payments much sooner than anticipated, which would be wonderful!

Closing date for my perfect job is tomorrow too...I so hope that I've got through the first stage! I'm confident I've got all the qualities and qualifications they're looking for, so it's just down to whether the tone of my letter (they requested an application form and a HUGE letter explaining all kinds of things) fit what they were looking for. The only personal quality I don't exactly fit is that they preferred somebody who's Catholic (as it's a Catholic School)...but as I've asked my (Anglican) Vicar if he'll provide a reference for me I'm hoping that will be more than enough Sorry - I'm waffling! With divorce and childcare and failed self-employment I haven't actually been in paid employment working for somebody else for the past three years - I'm nervous!

Had a slightly more officious letter accepting StepChange's offer to Vanquis Visa this morning. MBNA said "yes, sorry to hear about your financial difficulties, no interest will be added", Vanquis Visa say "okay...but only for 12 months and we're not saying anything about freezing interest AND you have to cancel any TV subscriptions you've got". Hmm. Seeing as Vanquis is actually my SMALLEST debt (£370), I've NEVER missed a payment and there's loads left up to my credit limit (there's almost £1200 left on the card!) I'm surprised they've been so grumpy about it! But hey, an acceptance is an acceptance...I'll find out if they're freezing interest, if not that will possibly become my #2 priority (once I've found out what other companies are saying, then after energy arrears and Littlewoods, where my interest free period will end soon). Oh, and as I don't pay for ANYTHING with my Visa and haven't even used it in around a year, I can only assume that they're telling me I have to cancel subscriptions in general (rather than any that are paid for with the card)? I'm not going to do that (3 children and no TV? No money to go out and no TV? Bimey... :rotfl:) Are they even allowed to tell me to do that?

On a related note, I got one of the 50% Sky codes on here yesterday - halved the monthly cost for my TV, phone and internet. :T This is one happy patator.

Has anybody had dealings with Lowell? I know StepChange have written to people, as I'm having letters coming back, but Lowell have written to me saying that they haven't heard anything about any DMP and that they're going to start calling me again. I'm pretty sure they'll have heard from StepChange by now...

Anxious - my fella was really, really against the idea of a DMP to start off with, too. In fact, he was so very against it that he couldn't even listen properly - he thought I was talking about taking out a consolidation loan (and kept referring to it as such even after I'd tried to explain to him over and over again!) I think, from the sound of things, the mood swings are pretty par for the course in the early days of DMP. I know I alternative wildly between "How did I get into this mess!?" and "At last I'm getting out of this mess!"

Apologies for the super-long post; wrote this in instalments while looking after my smallest clone. Hope everybody's having a positive day! x

CharliesAngel wrote: »

I think that the limits that they get presumably from the Government are quite low, although it's good when you can see some room for movement by adding bits here and there to 'hairdressing' 'dry cleaning' and 'entertainment'... I was shocked when I felt the need to own up about my 4500 new car which my parent's kindly bought on Hire Purchase as my last one blew up, literally.. but they allowed for the 109 a month, it's all down to your circumstances having said that I seem to have dropped a clanger this month and have £4.70 until the 22nd... happy days :rotfl:

CA x

i think we are slightly different in that my oh is self employed so his income is so irratic that we had to go worse case scenario, and we actually pay more than stepchange wanted us to based on his last years accounts.

Also a lot of the things they do allow you to budget for, we hadn't had for years while struggling to pay minimum payments etc, entertainment whats that, we didn't and still don't go out, so budgeting for that was all new for us, so all this is getting squirrelled away in an emergency fund

Its really good to see newbies on this forum. All I can say is that everything does settle down with the DMP, I know it doesnt feel like initially. When I started, for the first few months, it was awful, letters most days, phone calls home and mobile - I was really anxious. But all of that soon stopped. Now I just get occasional statements and rare phone calls, ususlly offering me the opportunity for a F&F payment ( I dont have any savings so thats not an option yet!).

In an ideal world I wouldny be in this mess. I read one of the newbies saying how their debt snowballed over time, and I can identify with that. But no more snowballs. My debt is no longer increasing. Its even reducing albeit ever so slightly and that is such a relief.

I admire those of you who are able to live with little money and use a high proportion of your income to pay off your debts. I have tried that with Payplan, but it was crippling me so now I am going the slower route with a different company. As long as I get there, I'll be happy. I agree we each have to do it the right way for us, we're all different.

A challenge ahead of me; some of you might be in the same boat. My 18 year old is just about to leave school and go to FE. Unfortunately she wont be entitled to any financial support anywhere that I can find. She has ADHD which makes it tricky for her to secure a part time job even though she is trying to find one. We have tried to get her DLA but she's not eligible. Any ideas how she might get some financial supprt somewhere? Also worth knowing I am divorced from her father and I am expecting maintenance to end very soon.

Thanks for your ideas:j